Structural
UAV Benefits
- Identify roof or gutter damage from a storm
- Calculate surface area for materials
- Calculate volume of structures or piles
- Determine ground damage from construction
- Locate hot/cold spots with proper optics
- Inspect the top of a grain leg
Outside of agriculture, UAVs also offer many community development benefits, such as the inspection of:
- Real estate
- Power lines
- Infrastructure
- Wind turbines
- Radio towers
UAV Challenges
Collision: When flying near structures and objects, collision is the greatest risk to a UAV.
- Tip: Most UAVs have anti-collision features for structural inspection, but they have limitations. Know your aircraft and when to turn off those features.
Speed: Developing a stitched image of a structure requires many images, along with tight overlaps. This can be time-consuming.
- Tip: Always capture high-resolution images for accuracy. Setting ground-control points can improve accuracy as well.
Stitching: Structures such as power lines rarely align perfectly in a stitched image. It can also be difficult when stitching images with identical, or nearly identical, structures.
- Tip:Take additional images with tight overlaps. If it's still questionable, it may be best to forgo the stitching software and take a still image.
Structural Examples
The drone pilot used a thermal camera to check the functionality of the solar panel array...
A local, Jasper County school wanted flights to document infrastructure repairs supported by...
This video was collected to examine an aging grain system and assess what repairs or upgrades...
The construction footprint of two newly installed power transmission towers are shown here...
UAVs can serve as a quick method to detect anomalies in irrigation systems, such as this center...
Purdue Extension partnered with Newton County REMC to photograph substation renovation and...
A subsurface concrete drain pipe was installed in 2019 to provide an outlet from a new retention...
Before the installation of a new septic tank and finger system, this homeowner was curious about...
We were able to locate leaky windows on the second floor of this courthouse using a UAV. We found...